‘Fair trade, not just free trade’

Opponents of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement lay 51 cardboard coffins outside the White House to symbolize the 51 trade unionists killed in Colombia in 2010. —Photo courtesy Office of Public Witness

Special to Presbyterian News Service

by Ginna Irby

WASHNGTON, D.C.

On July 11, more than 150 U.S. citizens from faith-based, environmental and human rights organizations gathered in front of the White House to protest the pending Colombia Free Trade Agreement. A Presbyterian presence was prominent among them.

“We are here right now to recognize that we are called to advocate for justice,” said the Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Public Witness. “We believe in fair trade, not just free trade.”

Along with other groups, OPW and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship helped organize the protest. Leaders from both groups spoke alongside environmental activists and trade unionists from the United States and Colombia about the devastating consequences the free trade agreement would have on laborers, farmers, Afro-Colombians and other Colombian citizens.

Participants surrounded the stage with 51 cardboard coffins representing the 51 trade unionists killed in Colombia in 2010 — more than the number killed during the same time period in the rest of the world combined.

Protesters marched from Lafayette Park to the White House fence, where they laid the symbolic coffins in the street as an act of civil disobedience.

Upon request from the police, the majority of the protestors returned to the park, where they waved signs, sang and chanted. Members of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship served communion.

But four members of the peace fellowship (director Rick Ufford-Chase, the Rev. Sally Juarez, Katie Rains and Kevin Moran) refused to leave their post of witness and stood praying and reading Scripture until they were arrested.

For Ufford-Chase, the choice to get arrested was the inevitable result of his Presbyterian convictions.

“As a denomination, the PC(USA) has consistently said, ‘We are opposed to free trade, we are in favor of human rights, and we are going to stand strong with our brothers and sisters [in Colombia],’” he told the public later that night in a radio interview on the Rick Smith Show.

While submitting to arrest may seem an extreme way to live out one’s faith, Rains reminded Presbyterians that “There is a spectrum of activism. One the one hand there is getting arrested in front of the White House. On the other hand there is refusing to use plastic bags at the grocery store … some people think this isn’t an ‘activist’ thing to do … but it is because it’s changing the normative culture …. We’re all in that spectrum somewhere. I ask people to look and see where they are and if God is calling you to grow into that next step.”

If Rick Ufford-Chase, Sally Juarez, Katie Rains, Kevin Moran and others want to block streets and
disobey police they are responsible for their own
behavior. They should not infer that Presbyterians
agree with their actions. As a guideline for Christian
behavior check out Matthew chapter 6.

by Mary Shell

July 28, 2011

"Street theater" is in the fine tradition of the prophets Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah. It is a tool which is used by those with little voice in a society to address the powerful. The Colombia Free Trade Agreement was negotiated by unelected representatives of powerful interests in Colombia and the USA. Its victims, poor farmers and laborers did not have a place at the negotiating table. More than 98% of farmers, indigenous people and Afro-Colombians oppose the agreement.
Let's have more street theater!

by Merilie Robertson

July 25, 2011

I think PNS is doing a great job publishing stories on what the different ministries in our denomination are actually doing, rather than cherry-picking and choosing topics. We may not always agree, but at least there's a media outlet that covers the PC(USA).

by Erika Weed

July 25, 2011

Where were the rest of you?

by Teddy Joy Hogle

July 25, 2011

At what point will PNS begin providing the minimum of fair balance to its "reporting"?
This article makes these radical activists appear so noble. It's a hagiography, not a news story.
One of the cardinal rules of news is to provide fairness and balance. Why was no effort taken to provide at least one voice to say that this was simply cockeyed grandstanding, a foolish and unnecessary stunt by people intent on using street theater to appear committed?
PNS is certainly consistent in its penchant for one-sided, propagandistic coverage. We Presbyterians of varied viewpoints deserve something far better and far more representative than the one-sided advocacy journalism we are receiving.

by James D. Berkley

July 22, 2011

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